Marshfield Town Meeting voters ban public marijuana consumption

Tuesday

May 6, 2014 at 4:00 PMMay 6, 2014 at 5:53 PM

Marshfield Town Meeting voters approved a bylaw that would ban public consumption of marijuana on Marshfield's streets, but still allow qualified patients to consume the drug in public in non-smoking forms Monday, May 5.

Voters also approved a zoning bylaw that would restrict a potential medical marijuana facility to the I-1 industrial zoning district in town Tuesday, April 29.

Staff Reporter

Medical marijuana might be legalized in Massachusetts, but its use and distribution will be heavily regulated in Marshfield.

Close to the end of Town Meeting on Monday night, May 5, the dwindling number of remaining voters approved a bylaw that would ban public consumption of marijuana on Marshfield’s streets, but still allow qualified patients to consume the drug in public in non-smoking forms, such as edible brownies or chocolates.

Those who smoke pot in public would be slapped with a $300 fine for each offense.

Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares said he crafted the bylaw out of concern for public safety and the effects of secondhand smoke.

“We should all be in agreement that use of it (marijuana) could have an affect on bystanders,” Tavares said at Town Meeting, adding that the bylaw would “preserve the good quality of life we have in Marshfield and continue to make it a good place to live.”

Tavares said he amended the bylaw from originally banning all citizens from smoking marijuana, or tetrahydrocannabinol — THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that produces a high — in public to allowing patients with a “valid medical certificate of a debilitating condition” to consume it publicly in all forms except smoking to help get the measure passed.

“I think this is an issue where the line is going to continually be drawn and this bylaw will help reduce community problems now and more importantly if this becomes legalized for recreational use in the very near future,” Tavares said in an interview. “I was very thankful for the overwhelming support and pleased with the results at Town Meeting.”

Since possession of less than an ounce of marijuana was decriminalized in 2009 and medical marijuana was legalized in 2012, Tavares said police have seen marijuana use and abuse rise and that there is a need for better enforcement of fines.

“People are no longer fearful of arrest, fines, or are no longer embarrassed to have it in public,” Tavares said, adding in later interview that since decriminalization, “in the last five years the number of marijuana violations we’ve issued have doubled.”

Tavares said a 15-town anti-crime task force comprising towns in Plymouth County has also reported an “upward trend” in marijuana in that timeframe.

Pembroke recently passed an amendment to the town’s bylaws banning the consumption of marijuana in public places as well as private property without the consent of the owner or person in control of the property at its Town Meeting. The amendment also included a $300 fine.

The Marshfield bylaw also comes on the heels of the state approving 20 Registered Marijuana Dispensaries on Jan. 31, including dispensaries in Plymouth and Brockton, just a few towns away from Marshfield.

Tavares said without the bylaw, citizens might be afraid to be in public areas such as a beach, park or playground if a person or group of people was smoking marijuana. A qualified patient could also smoke marijuana as a passenger in a motor vehicle, potentially impairing the driver, he said.

“Marijuana impairs bodily and mental functioning,” he said. “We ask, don’t smoke it in public and don’t smoke it and drive.”

The bylaw is similar to the town’s existing bylaws about not drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco in public, Tavares said.

While a medical marijuana facility is not imminently coming to Marshfield, voters also approved a zoning bylaw that would restrict a potential medical marijuana facility to the I-1 industrial zoning district in town in a two-thirds vote on the second night of Town Meeting last Tuesday, April 29.

The bylaw includes a number of regulations for a facility should one come to town, including building size, hours (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.), signage, and security measures. Other stipulations include providing services to qualified patients by appointment only, free delivery to qualified patients, having no employees under the age of 18, and having a 500-foot setback from places where children congregate, such as schools, playgrounds or the Marshfield Boys & Girls Club, said Michael Baird, the Planning Board member who gave the presentation on the article.

A medical marijuana facility would also have to get a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

“This is more regulated than plutonium. This is easily the most regulated thing in the Commonwealth,” Baird said. “Failure to pass this bylaw will essentially establish very little regulation on where these facilities will go and what they look like.”

Advisory Board member Elizabeth Zimmer said her board had recommend approval of the article because it was a “really comprehensive way of addressing citing of marijuana facilities.”

Resident Joe Shrand asked that the bylaw be changed to say that physicians can “certify” patients to use medical marijuana instead of the word “prescribe,” noting that physicians “cannot actually prescribe marijuana.”

After being questioned by resident Bob Parkis about where a facility could be located, Baird said a facility could be located on the portion of Route 139 that is in the I-1 district.

Gerald Maher, chairman of the Board of Health, spoke as a citizen to support the bylaw.

“Chief Tavares met numerous times with the Board of Health with this. This law was wide open. I don’t really think the state did a great job on it,” Maher said. “This motion is going to close a lot of the loopholes and this town should be very thankful to have Chief Tavares.”